Ice and snow skate



y 1949- 'e. TRAcHsLlN 2,469,798

I-GE AND snow SKATE Filed Nov. 28,-;944

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Patented May 10, 1949 UNITED STATES, PATENT OFFICE ICE AND SNOW SKATEGottlieb Triichslin, Basel, Switzerland Application November 28, 1944,Serial No. 565,531 In Switzerland December 3, 1943 Claims. 1

This invention relates to snow and ice skates to be attached to shoes,mainly composed of an intermediate runner connected with a supportingsurface projecting on each side, whereby the supporting surface and alsothe runner projecting therefrom in a downward direction are uniformlybent upwards in the front part, the head of the skate being providedwith a downwardly effective device for the forward movement of theskater. The width of the running surface of the runner shouldadvantageously and approximately correspond with that usually employedin ice skates and, at most, it should only project out of the supportingsurface to an extent corresponding with its width.

According to the present invention, it is possible to run on ice and onsnow. When skating, merely the runner takes effect. In this case, thereis no principal diiference, as compared with skating by means of skatesusually employed, However, in the case of snow, the runner takesacutting effect. Therefore, the supporting surface is located on the snowin such a manner that extensive sinking into snow is prevented. Howeverit is possible to run on a surface of snow, due to the supportingsurface being upwardly bent in its front part, similarly to the pointedend of a ski. such a manner that each half of the supporting surface hasan outwardly rising form, the'supporting part of the supporting surfacewill automatically, according to the consistency of the snow, adaptitself to the existing relation of force, inasmuch as, in the case ofhard snow, only a more or less narrow zone of the supporting surface onboth sides of the runner lies on the snow,

If the supporting surface is formed, in

whereas the outer zones of the supporting surface project above thesnow.

It is an object of the present invention to provide each half of thesupporting surface in a form which resembles that of a vault or arch; It

is also possible to provide a supporting surface of a shape which incross section has the general form of the letter V. The above mentionedshapes are not only advantageous when the skate is used for running onsnow, but also for skating on ice, because the upwardly curvedsupporting surface does not, in any way, interfere with the setting onedges, when running along curves on ice. In other words, the outer edgesof the supporting surface will not contact the ice surface when theskate is tilted as it is usually done when running along curves. The iceand snow skates hitherto known have straight or plane rather than curvedor arched supporting surfaces so that said known skates have thedisadvantage that their supporting surfaces contact the ice surface whenthe skater runs along curves on ice. Another advantage of the vaulted orcurved supporting surface over a straight or plane supporting surface inthis type of skates is that the skate when used for running on snowpenetrates the snow only to the extent necessary to support the weightof the skater, while straight or plane supporting surfaces alwayscontact the snow surface with their entire area.

The supporting surface may be composed of an integral piece, the runnerthen being advantageously attached to its lower side. Instead of thisconstruction, each half of the supporting surface may be made of aseparate piece. In this case, each half of the supporting surface willbe attached to one side of a traverse, which either carries the runneron its lower part, or is formed as a runner. Each half of the supportingsurface may be subdivided, composed of two or more 1ongitudinallydirected single strips. They may be arranged at a certain distance fromeach other, and they should advantageously be held by a mutual support.These strips may have a curved form, whereby the entire supportingsurface would be composed of runners positioned at a certain distancefrom each other and directed longitudinally, whereby these runners arelocated symmetrically with respect to the central runner.

The accompanying drawings show, by way of illustration, an example ofthe present invention in which Fig. l is a longitudinal sectional viewof the skate,

Fig, 2 is a top plan view,

Fig. 3 is a cross section through the rear bootattaching device, takenon line AB of Fig. 1.

According to Figs. 1 and 2, al represents the central, longitudinalportion of the supporting surface, I) designates the runner mountedthereon which is approximately as high as the width and projectsdownwardly from the supporting surface. As shown at the left of Figure1, the front portion of said runner b is curved upwardly in the samemanner as the supporting surface al. Just in front of the point oftransition of the substantially straight runner portion and the curvedrunner portion, the runner edge is provided with downwardly directeddents or teeth bl, which provide for gripping action on ice. Anedge-part a2 is located adjacent to each side of the central supportingsurface at, This edge-part is attached to the central part an by meansof screws or rivets a3. The central Supbe made of one piece with thesupporting surface. I L

The head-part a6 is provided with a device for forward movement, thisdevice being composed of 2 steel ledges cl and 02. The steel ledge.

cl, as shown in Fig, 2, is only provided across the central fiat bentpart al of the head of the device, whereas the second ledge c2,positioned in front thereof, is provided with flanks projecting beyond;

it, which, in horizontal section, show a curved form c6 with a sharpturn 03 towards the rear.

ledges are mounted on the supporting surface bymeans of scr ews c3screwed in the front or edge of said supporting surface. The ledge cl isprovided with sharp, downwardly direste dents or teeth 04, whereastheledge 02 shows a "sharp lower edge of thin steel plate. Therefore, anyfurther sharpening is not required. Directly behind the device for theforward movement, the supporting surface, and particularly its U centralpart al on' both sides of therunner b, is provided with apertures (14;Their object is to prevent accumulation of snow, inasmuch as evidently,as shown in Fig. l, snow could be squeezed into the acute-angledcornerbetween the central supporting'surface 'al and the ledge cl forthe forward movement, when the device for the forward movement is setinto action. "By means of these apertures 14, snow permitted to breakits way through upwardly, whereby it is automatica-lly discharged.

Ilie'rear part of the supporting surface is clevelbp'ed 'or merges to apoint a 9 ,'j as shown in Fig. 2. This enables excellentrunning onsn ow,beides straight stepping and, furthermore, it facilitates steeringpossibilities. In order to reduce running resistance, the centraisupporting surface oi is provided with strearniined indentations a5 inthe front bend, whereby the form of these indentations should beselected according to,

streamlined requirements. The indentations have resistance-reducingproperties similar to the indentations'in the bows of ships on bothsides of the keel-line. -'-The device for the attachment of bootsisCQmposed of a front all] and a rear part al I, similar to skates. Thefront part serves for the c' ception of the boot sole, the rear part forthat of the heel. For this purpose, tin or sheet metal plates dl areprovided which, by means of the angle pieces d2, rest on the centralsupporting surface al, screws or rivets d3 mounting the plates dl on theangle pieces d2. Angular clamps M, as used in conventional skates, aresupported in sliding guides d5 on each side of said plates all, capableof being laterally inserted and pushed out. They are arranged to projectdownwardly into the supporting angle piecesdZ and are provided with afemale screw thread, with which they run on the fixing bolt 116,provided on oneside with a square portion 011, capable of being engagedand turned by a regular key. The screw is supported in the centralcounter part do, which is attached to the plate dl by meansof rivets.

The use of this new skate is readily apparent from the foregoingdescription. By attaching a skate to each boot the usual technical skillis applied as with conventional skates. The shape of the runnercorresponds to that of the conventional skates. The dents bl for grippinaction on ice and the devices 02 and 04 for gripping action on snowfacilitate the forward movement. The rear. end pf the runner ,(seeFigure 1) may be used as a brake, as it is adapted to cut into the icewith sharp edges. If snow conditions are favorable, the ledge 02 may beused as brake. In this event, only the ledge 02 becomes active, becauseonly said ledge 02 is pressed into the snow shoving the snow forward,when the bootdstipped for braking. When running on snow under normalconditions, the ledges c2 and cl are above the snow surface. If the snowis yerysoft and loose, its consistency is decreased and the ledges c2and al may somewhat penetrate the snow. However, the resistanceof-softand loose snow is relatively small, so that the penetration ofthe ledges c2 and cl into the snow does neither considerably brake theskate nor otherwise unfavorably affect its running ualities. The ends 08of the ledge :2 are curved anddirected towards the rear of the skate todecrease the resistance of the skate when said ledge 92 contacts the,snow. If the snow layer is hard, as in the case of old and frozen snow,the skate only sinks to asmall extent, whereby the central supportingsurface a! is partly fully pressed into the snow, the edge-parts a2,however, act as stabilizing surfaces and render safe running possible,

* especially when running curves.

It is obvious thatvarious changes, substitutions and modifications. maybe resortedto without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe isntiqn- I 'claim:

1. In a snow and ice skate having supporting surfaces on each side of arunner, an ice and snow gripping device in the form of a downwardlyprojectingmember secured to the supporting surface at the front part ofand across the-skatesaid gripping devicehaving a substantially straightcentral portion merging into adjacent, inwardly bent side portions whichend into extremities directed towards-the rear ofthe skate.

2,.An ice and snow skate comprising a cent a r nn a s t n i c xt d fromeach side of the runnenthe runner projecting from the under surface ofthe supporting surfaca meansfor securingthe-skate to a shoe, and an iceand snow gripping device secured to .the front. of the skatein the formof a downwardly projecting member extending around the front part of theskate to grip the ice and snow when the skate is tilted.

3. An ice and snow skate according to claim-2 in which a seconddownwardly extending member is secured to the front part of the skate inspaced relation with the first-mentioned projecting member.

4. An ice and snowskate comprising a central runner, a supportingsurface extending from each side of said runner, the runner projectingdownwardly from the supporting surface, said runner and supportingsurface being upwardly bent in their-front part, and a downwardlyprojecting device at the front of the skate to grip the ice and snow andpositioned transversely relative to the ,Iunnensaid projecting devicebeing composed of a central, substantially straightfrent 5 portion andadjacent lateral flanges which are Number bent towards the rear of theskate, 1,512,327 5. An ice and snow skate according to claim 1,526,9044, in which the supporting surface is provided 1,658,093 with aperforation on each side of the runner at 5 1,802,116 the front justbehind the projecting device. 1,886,650 GOITLIEB TRACHSLIN. 2,152,0112,322,163 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the10 file of this patent: iggg UNITED STATES PATENTS 126,607 Number NameDate 594392 334,954 Kingston Jan. 26, 1886 15 834,345 982,239 Brown Jan.24, 1911 Name Date Young, Jr. Oct. 21, 1924 Denning Feb. 17, 1925Nygaard Feb. '7, 1928 Kinsley Apr, 21, 1931 Davies et a1. Nov. 8, 1932Zier Mar. 28, 1939 Schmidt June 15, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS Country DateGermany July 22, 1901 Austria Feb, 10, 1932 Germany Mar. 16, 1934 FranceAug. 16, 1938

